Might just be a good day today, after all
by Jumaolster
Summary: team mending friendship fluff. Jake is the baddie


Hadja was listening intently to what the man was saying on the phone. She'd only been in the US for 6 months, and still had trouble understanding people when they talked fast, and the man wasn't even talking to her, but on the phone. He paid no attention whatsoever to her though. It was as if she was invisible, and sometimes, she could even wonder if maybe she was. People like the man in front of her just did a very good job at ignoring her.

Hadja thought the man was too full of himself. She realised he had no obligation to acknowledge her, to be friendly, or even say a polite " Good morning". But Hadja also knew some people who treated her like she was a human being, not just someone who carries out the trash.

That Mr. Caine for example, he was a real gentleman, for sure. Always friendly, and he even said Good morning when he saw her. Unfortunately, Hadja had herself some bad scheduling, to puzzle times together with her husband for looking after their children, and worked in the Dade lab from 04.00 am to 08.00 am, to clean the offices and the stairwells and the bathrooms, and the locker rooms and an endless of other facilities, while other people were sound asleep in their homes.

Not that she was complaining. This was much better than what they'd ever dreamed of. The children went to school, and they rented a little apartment with running water and central heating in the winter, and they sent money home to loved ones far away.

Hadja grinned to herself, but suddenly she heard something she understood.

The man, who was very rarely in the office at this early hour ( on the contrary to Mr. Caine, he was mostly in the office by 07.00 am), said to the other person.

"OK, then! We'll check Valera's office this morning, and report her for reprimanding!"

Hadja knew who Valera was. She was that nice girl, who'd been in trouble with Ms Boa Vista just the other week. Ms Boa Vista's husband had been killed. Hadja hadn't picked up all the gossip, but had been very happy that the women had not been guilty. The man on the phone, on the other hand, had wanted to do some justice on his own, and had not followed Mr. Caines instructions. Hadja wrinkled her nose.

What should she do now?

Call her husband for advice, maybe he would know what to do.

She quickly exited the man's office, and ran into the ladie's room to phone.

"Hello, Osman? Hey listen……………." And she explained to her husband what she'd just heard.

Osman was silent on the other end for a while. Then he said:

"MS Boa Vista is in the office around 07.30 a lot of times, go see if she's arrived yet, and tell her what you heard. Make sure no one sees you., the man who's office you cleaned is Jake, and he's with the IAB. The IAB make internal investigations. "

Hadja agreed and hung up.

She quickly got her cart with the cleaning supplies and rushed off for the elevator, praying that Ms Boa Vista would be in the office at this hour.

Exiting the elevator on the Lab's floor, Hadja parked the cart and went looking for Ms Boa Vista, luckily finding her right there, in the DNA lab.

"Ms Boa Vista?" suddenly Hadja felt very shy and silly. What if Ms Boa Vista wasn't interested? What if???

But the other woman looked at her with warm, curious eyes, and said:

"Yes, Hadja, how can I help you?"

Hadja was encouraged by the fact that MS Boa Vista knew her name. Nearly no one knew her name, sometimes she felt like she was a nameless "You" person.

"I heard Mr Jake on the phone, he wants to check Ms Valera's work and report her today!" Hadja hoped the other woman would understand and fill in the blanks, her English wasn't very good yet.

Just in that instant, Ryan came walking into the lab:

"Hey, what's up?"

Both women jumped at his sudden salute.

"Whooha! No need to get all nervous!" he smiled at them, his most disarming smile. He did wonder what they had been combining, though.

Natalia spoke first:

"Hadja here has heard that the IAB want to check Valera's lab today, and make a report if something is amiss." Natalia looked very disapproving. That Jake guy seriously needed to start concentrating on real cases.

Hajda nodded. She was relieved. Now someone would help Ms Valera, for sure.

Natalia turned to Hadja and said:

"Thank you. Please don't mention this to anyone, and go back to work like nothing has happened, ok?"

Hadja nodded again, and left the room to get back to work. Of course she wouldn't tell anyone.

Ryan looked worried. Valera was a good worker, but her lab was a mess a lot of times, and if Jake was after her, she was in trouble for sure.

In that moment, Natalia grabbed his arm, and started dragging him out the door.

"Let's go! Let's get to Valera's office at once, and see if we can get it a bit organised! I'll do the work, and you'll keep watch out!"

Ryan's heart sank. They were sooooo getting into trouble. On the other hand, Maxine merited a break, and no one was very likely to stop Natalia anyway, he might as well tag along and do all the damage control he could.

They arrived at the lab a few seconds later, and sure enough, Valera hadn't really followed protocol the evening before at lock up.

Ryan sighed.

"Stay just outside, and call me on my cell phone. Pretend to be talking to someone, and if you see Jake, warn me and I'll get out the back door!" Natalia was whispering nervously.

Ryan rolled his eyes at her:

"There's no one here, and there's no need to whisper, you know!"

Natalia grinned back:

"Get out silly, and do as I told you!"

Ryan was beginning to feel excited about them breaking all these rules. Ah well. H would help them for sure, if they got caught.

He stood outside and dialled Nat's number, she answered right away, and put him on the speaker phone.

"Hey Nat? What it Jake uses the back door to the lab?"

"Shoot! I hadn't thought of that! Darn it! But Jake's not really the kind of guy that uses the backdoor, you know."

Ryan hoped very much she was right.

He could hear Natalia rummage around in the lab through the phone, and started telling her silly jokes, to have something to say.

She giggled out loud.

Suddenly he grew serious.

"Nat, I hear someone coming, get out of there!"

"Just a sec! You go ahead and disappear!"

Ryan rushed down the hallway in the opposite direction, rounded the corner of the lab, ran back the other way, and seeing that Natalia was still foolishly in the lab, ran in, grabbed her arm, and pulled her out.

The door closed behind them one second before Jake walked in the main entrance, followed by a uniformed officer to use as a witness.

Natalia and Ryan had no time to run off, instead they both slouched down on the floor, Ryan kneeling on one side of the door, and Natalia on the other.

They were both praying that no one would come by, or that Jake would walk out the back door.

_Darn these glass walls, they both thought simultaneously._

They could hear Jake checking the lab, and suddenly Calleigh came walking in, steaming furious over Jake's latest endeavour.

"What are you doing, Jake? Trying to get Maxine into trouble seeming as you couldn't pin a murder on her or Natalia? "

Ryan and Natalia both winced at her tone of voice.

You did NOT want Calleigh to talk to you like that, no Ma'am!

They instinctively crouched down some more.

In that moment, Maxine arrived:

"What's going on?" She sounded both angry and frightened at the same time.

Calleigh answered her:

"Jake apparently had nothing better to do this morning than to waste his time checking your lab, but I'm glad to say he's found everything in order!" Calleigh smiled at the other woman warmly.

Maxine however, did not seem convinced at all, she was looking around herself like she didn't recognise the lab. Wisely, she kept quiet, but both Jake and Calleigh where seasoned investigators, and picked up Maxine's insecurity at once.

Calleigh was determined to resolved this her way:

"Maxine, for now, I'd like you to come with us please!" She resolutely nudged Maxine towards the exit, and Jake and the uniformed officer followed.

Calleigh had a vague idea of who might have cleaned the lab up, but she wasn't going to tell Jake, she was going to get to the culprit herself later. In the meantime, she was going to hold a long speech to Maxine on safety measures and security, and she was going to force Jake to listen too. Appropriate punishment for both of them, she thought.

Walking away, she carefully turned around, to see if anyone was around, and she saw someone in a green blouse hasten down the hall.

Calleigh smiled to herself. HAH!

Later that day, after Maxine and Jake had both listened to Calleigh go on for a long time about said safety measures, Calleigh went off to find Natalia.

That girl sure was prone to land in a heap of trouble, and boy, was Calleigh going to be strict with her.

At that note, she ran into Horatio.

"Calleigh? May I have a minute of your time?"

"Why, of course, how may I help you?"

Horatio nodded to her, and she followed him into his office.

"I just came off the phone with our friend Jake", Horatio smiled at Calleigh softly, "he seems to be under the impression that we have ourselves another mole. Someone obviously had cleaned up Maxine's office and lab this morning, since he checked the premises last night, and the place was a bit of a mess. He wanted to teach her a lesson, but someone obviously got there before him this morning."

Calleigh sighed. Jake wasn't even half as dumb as people thought he was.

"I know. I've been holding a big speech to Maxine for the past 45 minutes, and I think I might know who wanted to help her." She smiled at Horatio. " If you want, I can handle it, or else if you prefer, you can handle it."

Horatio thought about this for a moment:

"No, Calleigh, I think we need to talk to Natalia together."

Calleigh smiled at him widely.

"How did you know I suspect Natalia?"

"Well, she is the other senior DNA specialist, and has the knowledge to clean the place up in no time. However , since she was attending Nick's funeral yesterday, I believe that how she found out about the check up is a bit of a mystery, isn't it, Ma'am?"

Calleigh nodded. Nick's funderal, she thought, that's why Natalia was so absent minded yesterday morning. She'd had to recall her to attention twice during the processing of a crime scene, and had also asked Nat if something was wrong, but apparently, the other woman had not felt like she could confide in her. Calleigh sighed.

"She was very absend minded yesterday morning," Calleigh told Horatio,

"But I think she felt like she couldn't tell me, because I called her on her behaviour twice, and she didn't' tell me."

Natalia had been a bit distant since Nick's death. At first Calleigh had thought it was because she and Eric had talked to Jake, but then Ryan had told her how he was trying to cheer her up, to no avail.

Horatio nodded.

"She's taken Nick's death very hard, and also being arrested and having her actions publicly displayed was very hard on her. I think she felt exposed, and humiliated. She's a very private person. Maxine seems to have dealt with things better."

"Maxine is younger, and does not have the traumatic experiences Natalia has." Calleigh was truly worried for her friend.

Horatio said:

"Call her for me, please Calleigh, and tell her to meet us in the park outside the building, that way, no one will see that we are questioning her, it'll seem more like a walk in the park."

Calleigh smiled at him. Leave it to H to think of details like that.

After she'd called Natalia and told her to meet up in the park in five minutes, she and Horatio walked out the secondary exit, and went to wait for Natalia.

Natalia saw them sitting on a bench together, and hoped no one had discovered what she'd done in the morning. She started to feel very nervous about things but when she arrived, Horatio and Calleigh moved a part, so she could sit between them.

Natalia thought she would make a lousy criminal, because she now had butterflies in her stomach and was twirling her hands.

Calleigh started, deciding on a direct appraoch:

"We know you cleaned up Maxine's lab this morning. Jake had gone for a round last night, and had put her up for inspection, to teach her a lesson, she needs to be more meticulous."

Horatio went on:

"No one is angry with you. What we're here to talk about, is that you need to learn how to trust people, and to have a back up in case things go wrong. You need to tell the team when you have someone's back, so we can have your back."

He smiled at her softly, to make sure she knew they were on her side.

Natalia was staring down her lap. Should she tell them Ryan had helped? Maybe yes.

"Ryan helped, " she said in a small voice, "and I didn't want Maxine to get into more trouble, see?"

To her great relief, both Calleigh and Horatio beamed at her.

"That's great!" Calleigh exclained enthusiasticly, "we're glad you relied on the team!"

Natalia nodded:

"Because it was early, and we were the only ones that had arrived." She was beginning to feel better, when Horatio said seriously:

"You need to tell us who told you, Natalia, because Jake is going down the leak route again, and we don't need that."

Natalia shook her head. She didn't want Hadja to get into trouble.

But Calleigh cut in:

"You can tell us, whoever it was, she or he will not get fired. We understand you did it to protect Maxine, but if you want us to be able to help you, we need to know the truth!"

Calleigh put her hand under Natalia's chin and forced her to look her in the eyes.

"Hm, Natalia, you know you can trust me, don't you?"

Calleigh still had a feeling Natalia had been very hurt by her talking to Jake. He'd used her words against Natalia, had twisted their meaning, and Natalia must be thinking she had betrayed her trust. Calleigh decided attack was the best defence:

"I know that Jake used some things I said against you. I want to tell you that I was trying to help you, and so was Eric. We do need to tell the truth in an investigation, but Jake should have been more meticulous in his work, and not jump into conclusions. I can assure you that both Horatio and I 've talked seriously with Jake, he'll be sent to on a investigation ethics and interrogation techniques course as soon as the budget allows it."

Natalia suddenly smiled:

"Sometime next millennium, huh?"

Calleigh smiled back.

Natalia took a deep breath and said:

"One of the cleaning staff heard Jake on the phone this morning, and came to see me to tell me about it. Apparently the cleaning staff aren't too happy about him." Natalia had talked to the head janitor after cleaning up Maxine's lab, the cleaning staff regarded Jake with contempt. He always threw away food in his office instead of in the break room, and his desk was such a mess it was difficult to clean, and he always moved the night shifts supervisor's photos around on her desk to anger her.

After hearing this, Horatio looked very disapproving:

"I think I'll have a little talk with Jake today, what do you say, Calleigh?"

"Go ahead!"

Natalia giggled. Her laughter reached all the way to her eyes, Calleigh noticed, and giggled back.

Horatio was relieved.

No new mole, no one being fired today, and Natalia and Calleigh giggling together. This caused for a celebration of some kind. Horatio had and idea:

"Call the boys and Alexx! It's a slow day today, let's all go out for lunch together!"

Both women nodded happily, and grabbed their cell phones.

Might just be a good day, today, after all.


End file.
